These cupcakes are da bomb!

This past Sunday we went over to my Mom & Dad's house for dinner. Since it was close to St. Patrick's Day, I made the Irish Car Bomb cupcake recipe that I found on the Smitten Kitchen website. Jeeesus, Mary & Joseph! (as my Irish Grandmother used to say) They were the best cupcakes I have ever tasted! Made with Guinness Beer and Bailey's Irish Creme, they seemed like the perfect sweet treat for this time of year.

(food photography is not my thing...sorry for the blurriness!)

If there is any part of you that loves chocolate and the taste of Bailey's Irish Creme, I urge you to make these cupcakes as soon as you possibly can. Although, I have to disclose that since the recipe makes 24 cupcakes, you may want to wait until there are people around so that you don't find yourself eating all 24 yourself (which I would have happily done if left to my own devices. Luckily I froze 6 of the cupcakes & gave the most of the rest away. Still, I have managed to eat 4 of them in the past 48 hours & it will be a miracle if the last cupcake survives until Mr. Crackers gets home tonight!)

Here's the recipe (from SmittenKitchen.com)

Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes

For the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes:
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

Baileys Frosting:
2 1/2 to 3 cups confections sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons Baileys

Special equipment: 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer and a piping bag (though a plastic bag with the corner snipped off will also work). I used an apple corer with great success!

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in a bowl with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a little bit at a time.

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

As I said before, your final step will be quickly give as many of these away as possible, or you will find yourself barricaded in your own kitchen speed eating them until you are no longer able to button your pants.

And now, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I will share with you one of my memories of my Irish Grandmother. (I should probably preface this story by saying my paternal grandparents had 12 children - and that is bound to do something to a person. I myself probably would have gone completely insane when faced with that many children to raise.) Although I don't think she was even five feet tall, my Grandma was a force to be reckoned with. To a child of 7 or 8, she was downright fearsome - not at all the prototypical warm and fuzzy grandma.

"Do ya want to play a game with me Karen?"(this in itself should have been a clue that something strange was coming. I think this was the only time she ever uttered that sentence.)

"Sure Grandma, what do you want to play?"

"It's a game I call 52 pick up. Do ya want to know how to play?"

"Yeah" (I swear I have always been incredibly gullible. I had no idea what was coming next.)

"OK. Here we go" she told me as she threw an entire deck of cards up into the air.

We both watched as all 52 cards fell down onto the floral carpeting in the living room.

"Now ya get pick 'em up." she said with a gleam in her eye as she turned and left the room.

I'll tell you something that I learned at an early age. Do not mess with the Irish.